Best PlacesPinehurst, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Pinehurst metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Leonard J. DeFrancisci, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wiki
Pinehurst ranks 86th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on health care access and quiet. The weaker spots are the weather, walkability, and biking.
The best neighborhoods in the Pinehurst metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Pinehurst
The towns and districts of the Pinehurst metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Downtown Pinehurst
More adults hold degrees, crime runs lower, and more residents vote.
Pinebluff
Fewer households have young kids and tree cover is thinner.
Southern Pines
It is noisier and homes cost more.
Whispering Pines & Vass
Fewer homes sit empty and heat risk is lower.
Carthage & Cameron
Scores close to Whispering Pines & Vass, except that local pay stretches less far here.
Aberdeen
Schools score lower.
Robbins & Seven Lakes
Prices have run up less, though incomes run lower.
Pinehurst shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 12% of the country and others in the top 6%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Pinehurst's strengths and weaknesses
Pinehurst ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Health care access is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Quiet and civic engagement follow.
The one real hole is the weather, near the bottom of the country. Walkability and biking also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Pinehurst ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 91% of metro areas
Where Pinehurst ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 56 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 10% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Pinehurst
A household needs to earn about $90,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pinehurst home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $88,479; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Pinehurst's effective rate of 0.56%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Pinehurst
Pinehurst runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pinehurst.
Who works in Pinehurst, and how
Work in Pinehurst centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Pinehurst
Pinehurst has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Pinehurst and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Pinehurst growing, and who is moving in?
Pinehurst has grown about 17% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Greensboro, NC.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Pinehurst go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Pinehurst, month by month
Pinehurst sees roughly 56 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 56, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 56° | 42° | 30° |
| April | 77° | 63° | 49° |
| July | 93° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 77° | 63° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Pinehurst
The nearest airport, Fayetteville Regional/Grannis Field, is about 36 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 61 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pinehurst
Schools across Pinehurst average an A−, better than 91% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Pinehurst ElementaryA+ · 74% proficient
- West Pine ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
- Sandhills Farm Life ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- West Pine MiddleA+ · 70% proficient
- New Century MiddleA · 60% proficient
- Southern MiddleB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Union Pines HighA− · 66% proficient
- Pinecrest HighA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pinehurst school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pinehurst measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Pinehurst against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Pinehurst suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 89% of metro areas and 14% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Pinehurst
Is Pinehurst a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pinehurst ranks 86th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on health care access, quiet, and civic engagement, and lowest on the weather and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pinehurst expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $357,148. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $88,479 median income, cost of living beats 89% of metro areas.
Is Pinehurst safe?
Yes, Pinehurst is safer than 76% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $312 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Pinehurst?
July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 56 with lows near 30. That works out to about 56 pleasant days a year, more than 1% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Pinehurst?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Pinehurst, Pinebluff, and Southern Pines. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Pinehurst good for families?
Schools beat 91% of metro areas, crime safety beats 76%, and childcare runs $758 a month.
Is Pinehurst good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 89% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 10% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Pinehurst with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pinehurst. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pinehurst represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Pinehurst detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pinehurst: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pinehurst: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pinehurst: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pinehurst: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pinehurst detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.